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My youngest lad Jon's 68 Camaro

This is my youngest lad, 21 year old, Jonathan's second car project, he bought it about the 16th of August, most folks would of been happy to leave the car as was & probably have been posting it in the Showfield section but not Jonny, some starter motor issues meant the car was going to be off the road for a week while he waited for the new mini starter, so into the workshop it goes for a few mods.

A bit of a background to Jon.
A lot of the guys on here know Jonny but for those of you that don't, 3 years ago he couldn't even weld, he'd helped me on a couple of cars so I gave him our old MK1 Escort to learn how to weld etc, he took to it like a duck to water & has turned into, what I think, is quite a talented young fabricator & has left me for dead with his skills.

Now confidence of youth nothing phases him & it was no surprise to me when he decided to cut most of the roll cage & floor out

Picking the car up & a day run out to York Dragway, didn't take it down the strip, just a reliability run.

The car had developed some starter issues & as mentioned he ordered a new one, we were not happy with the design of the cage, it was too close to the occupants heads & because of the floor design it meant you couldn't alter the seat position to make it safe.

Here is a picture of one of our neighbours the roof bar was at mid head height unless you laid the seat right back, the bars were made old school with the door hoops been made one piece with the roof bar welded below the top radius between them.

Floor design originally all like passenger side but modded in the past to create the drivers side recess.

Jon hired a draw bender for the 42mm CDS tubing & had to work out how to use it as well, I was just

Trial fitting the main hoop

Fits a lot more snugly to the roof lining & gives a few inches of head room to allow for a helmet

The new door hoop legs, the design meant they could be mounted higher & Jon increased their length to allow a bigger door opening

Setting them in place, you can see the extra clearance compared to the pic with the neighbour

The next set of pics show the windscreen bar bent & fitted between the door legs, this was done outside the car to enable them to be easily seam welded all the way around. They were tacked to pieces off box to keep the alignment while they were welded.

Jon decided to keep the old Nascar design door bar, it allows easier access, he said it's more of a road car than a race car, he thought about straight bars but it meant he had to remove the steering wheel to get in & out, he also thought of putting a short straight tube between the main hoop & door bar but that interfered with getting to the seat back adjuster & linelock valve.

Unfortunately again no clear pics but Jon bent & fitted a seat level bar between the legs of the main hoop, just visible in this pic

He wanted a proper tunnel so made a short extension to the existing front

bent up new tunnel

The seats were not very secure in the original set up so he made & welded some brackets to some tube & welded them in between the tube chassis & sill sections.

While Jon is not happy with the quality of the ladder bars he wants to run the car at York & it is a requirement to have cages fitted to the ladder bar front rose joint so he made & fitted these. He's got some small section CDS & is going to fabricate a new set of bars with adjuster collars in them so they can be adjusted in situ

Again because of the speed he was working at we've no photos, he wasn't happy with the bent rear window bars, just visible through the screen.

So he replaced them with straight ones connected to rear main chassis hoop, pic from similar angle

The car is now back on the road complete with it's new starter, it took him exactly 3 weeks from start to finish.

Thanks to anyone who has taken the time to read this, my finger is killing me.

I could of posted this in the Showfield section but anyone that knows Jonny, knows it's only a matter of time before he decides he wants to alter something else.

He's restarting Uni tomorrow (oops today) it's his final year doing his Masters in Mechanical Engineering so hopefully can match practical skills & theoretical knowledge, he must of got it from his mother because he leaves me gobsmaked.

Superb. Nice to see pride and workmanship in a project. Cant wait to see what comes out in a few years time from Jon, especially with an engineering degree in his pocket, and fabrication skills like that....